


somewhere along the way

by Loki_Laufeyson



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Pre-Series, Sexual assault (not by Dennis), Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 05:57:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8653429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loki_Laufeyson/pseuds/Loki_Laufeyson
Summary: "Oh Dee, don't you get it yet?" Dennis asks, taking her chin in his hand and tilting her face up to his, "I love you."
  
  That was probably true, once. Love, obsession, control. They’re all one in the same to Dennis Reynolds these days. 
  
In which Dennis has sabotaged every one of Dee's hopeful relationships (and then some) to keep her under his thumb.





	

**Author's Note:**

> If I were writing this for another fandom, I would almost certainly tag it as the "dark" version of the character. But this is IASIP and this is Dennis we're talking about. Nothing is too dark. Although this is a very "serious" fic compared to Sunny's normal content. You've been warned.

** 8 **

It started long before Paddy's, before The Gang, before Dennis was the King and Dee was the Aluminium Monster, even before the Reynolds twins had been truly soured by their parents' neglect. It started in a memory that Dennis can recall only hazily.  

He thinks it went something like this:

Dennis, with eyes far too keen for a child, watches Dee watch that rodent Freddy Martinez from across the playground. Earlier that day, he had heard her giggling to her silly little friends that she _liked_ Freddy. _Like_ liked him. She's going to ask him to be her _boyfriend_. So they can hold hands and she can blush prettily when he looks her way or something.  It makes Dennis' stomach twist. 

He watches Dee set off towards Freddy with that single-minded determination only she seems to have. She's wearing a sun yellow dress that matches her hair (Dennis doesn't know why he remembers this in particular) and with that scowl and those clenched fists Dennis thinks she looks as lovely, as sweet as anything. Back when sweet still meant just that to him. 

He admires his sister, his twin, for a moment before taking off after her, a heavy rock sat warm in the palm of his hand. 

"Hey Freddy-" Dee starts before Dennis cuts in, "Hey! Freddy! We were just wondering- well, our dad says your family came to Philly in the back of a truck full of taco shells and salsa. Is that true?"

That's all it takes for Freddy to launch himself at Dennis, who happens to be standing just out of reach, behind Dee. Dennis doesn't hesitate to pull his arm back and launch the rock at Freddy's head. It clips his ear nicely and sends him reeling backward.

"You Reynolds, you're all trash!" Freddy yells at them, clutching his bloody ear with both hands, "Stay away from me!"

"Gladly!" Dennis begins to laugh with his sister. But Dee has already fled.

** 12 **

Dee is coming to the end of her pageant career by the time she turns twelve years old. It's for the best really, Dennis thinks. The makeup makes her look like a prostitute that caters exclusively for clowns, her so-called talent, acting out monologues from John Hughes films, is a joke, and it is clear that the sense of accomplishment (validation, Dennis will recognise later) has long since faded away. Their parents stopped coming after the second attempt. Dennis has watched every one.

Pageantry had kept her busy though and with all this new free time she has stated turning her eye to other things. Like _boys_. 

Sprawled out on the floor beside Dee's bed as she sleeps, Dennis pours over her diary. In between the pictures glued in from her dream board and the horrific sketches of love hearts, Dennis reads about a boy in their class _. I want him to be my first kiss,_  it says in her chicken scratch cursive. Her giggly, blushing infatuation is embarrassing. For both of them.

At the bus stop the next morning, they stand shoulder to shoulder and Dennis resolves to put an end to this. Turning towards her, he grabs Dee's shoulders in a tight grip. Her eyes widen in alarm but before she has a chance to scold him he slams his mouth into hers, his own eyes squeezed shut.

When he hears the bus pull up beside them he lets Dee squirm out of his grasp, gasping for air as she goes. 

"Dennis!" she screeches, wiping her lips frantically on the back of her hand until they're red, "Gross! What do you think you're doing!?"

"Can't I show my sister how much I love her?"

"Not like that!"

"Oh, nice Dee, real sweet of you.  Here I am trying to be affectionate and what do I get?" Dennis turns away to board the bus, scowl falling away to a smirk. He wonders if she even realises what he's done.

(He's not even sure what it is. He just _wants._ Wants so badly to take and take and take what is hers.)

Later, when Dee does kiss that boy from her diary, she'll think triumphantly that she had gotten what she wanted for once. Then that joy will sink like stone in her stomach as she remembers the Dennis, his tight grip and his hard, angry mouth at the bus stop. 

That memory will leave her, as so many do, but the feeling never will.

** 16 **

Dennis doesn't think about his sister much these days. He's got a gang to run, girls to pursue and a reputation to maintain. Still, it’s in his best interest to keep an eye on her. She's hard to miss anyway, with that monstrous contraption on her. 

He knows that Rickety Cricket sniffs about Sweet Dee every day and that she devours his attention like she's famished. It's not far from the truth.  _Let him try,_ Dennis thinks scornfully. He's not worried about Cricket, soon enough her gratification will give way to disgust and resentment. Dennis learned early that if he withholds and withholds and withholds his affection from her, it makes the makes the moments he gives so much _sweeter_. 

Tonight is a night for giving. 

Tonight Dee has made herself up with too much blusher and an ill-fitting dress scavenged from their mother's wardrobe. She's on her way to some loser party. Dennis wasn't invited but he didn't want to be anyway- okay? It's bound to be full of deformed freaks like her.

Sitting on the stairs, Dennis quietly watches Dee fix her makeup. She could be something, really quite pretty, if she only knew what to do with herself, he thinks mildly.

Bright red lipstick stains her lips. No doubt she plans on having that smeared by some boy or other, to parade proudly in front of their parents ( _and me_ , Dennis definitely does not think). 

Dee casts him a suspicious glance as he rushes to open the door for her. 

"Don't go in my room, dickbag." She sneers.

Ignoring her, Dennis pulls Dee into a hug, awkward around her back brace. He speaks, low into her ear, "You look beautiful, Sis."

She stiffens in his arms, fingers curling into the fabric at his hips. (And if Dennis stiffens a little bit too, in some other way, well he can just ignore that). It's enough to tell him that she'll think about this for the entirety of her party. When she goes to sleep. The next morning. 

"Whatever." She snorts, pulling away.

Her back brace knocks against the door frame in her hurry to leave and Dennis laughs loudly after her retreating figure. 

** 20 **

The back brace has been gone for almost a year now and Dennis can see the confidence growing within her. The dresses inch up higher, the lipstick gets brighter and her nights get later. 

Others have noticed the slut too. A boy, in their shared Psych class, James or whatever, started watching her from across the lecture theater with hungry, devoted eyes. 

They've gone out on 5 dates now and Dennis can see the smile that tries to creep around the edges of her mouth when she gets back to the dormitory after seeing him. She starts calling Jason her _boyfriend_ , her eyes bright whenever she says the word. 

Her happiness is nauseating. He has to stop it. 

In the end, Julian is too easy to trip up. Barely a challenge. Dennis enlists the help of Charlie and Mac, who are all too happy to have a hand in ruining Dee's blossoming relationship. They take Justin out on the town, to seedy bars where their shitty fake IDs are not even asked for, and pour drink after drink down his throat in the name of "getting to know Dee's boyfriend". 5 heavy hours later and Charlie clicks away on the disposable camera as Mac and Dennis lay Josh's unconscious body in lewd positions over the hooker they had paid 20 bucks for 5 minutes of a sham photo shoot. 

Mac and Charlie, the trigger happy fools, want to act immediately but Dennis is playing the long game. He lets the relationship grow a bit more, let's her feel wanted and needed before striking.

Back in Philadelphia, Dennis watches Dee through a crack in her bedroom door. He can see the photos Mac had delivered early that day spread out over her bed and her white knuckled hands clutching the bed sheets.

She isn't crying. Dee doesn't cry anymore.

He enters slowly, letting her see his eyes widen in some just-passable imitation of horror and pity as his "spots" the pictures on the bed, "Oh God Dee, that's just, oh, terrible. Just awful. Mac mentioned that they went out but I didn't think-"

"Just- just get lost Dennis." She stumbles with lackluster conviction. That fledgling, tentative confidence she has been cultivating crumbles away so easily in front of him. Her eyes shine wetly and she sucks her bottom lip into her mouth. It takes an uncomfortable amount of effort to look away and perch beside her on the bed.

Reaching out tentatively, Dennis draws Dee's shaking body towards him. She doesn't resist. She simply folds into his arms like she belongs there, hands clutching the front of his shirt. Stroking her back, he holds her to his chest in her childhood bed.

"You don't need him." He murmurs into her hair. 

_You just need me._

** 23 **

Dee is such a self-sabotaging mess that she does most of the work for him these days. She's stopped trying to put any emotional investment into the men she picks up, so scared of the constant rejection that follows her around like a specter.

Dee is miserable and Dennis should be happy with this development. The problem is that demoralized Dee is independent and carefree in a way hopeful Dee can never be. 

He needs to show her that it can get worse. That she does need him. (God, he needs a hit.)

It's 2am on a Tuesday in Philadelphia and the gang are all deep into their cups. They spend every waking moment Dennis is home from college wasted. Dee, now a tragic college dropout, tags along. They let her as a convenient outlet for their abuse. 

Only Charlie, who can hold his drink like a champ and/or an alcoholic, still remains fully upright and bright eyed by this point in the night, buzzing around the bar contentedly. Mac is trying to clumsily square off against a man twice his width, chest puffed out and seconds from a thorough beating. Dee is slumped over her glass, blonde hair sweeping the bar top. Dennis' head is humming from the booze but he knows now is the time to move. 

In a booth at the back of the bar, Dennis has spotted a man casting furtive glances at his sister all evening. He is balding prematurely, skin is oily from lack of a proper skin care routine and he definitely still lives with his mother. Perfect.

"Hey," Dennis slides up next to the man with a smile, "You see that girl at the bar? The one that looks like a bird?" The man nods, "Well she told me she thinks you're hot."

"Me!?" The basement dweller exclaims. 

"Yeah, yeah man. She wants you to take her outback and... ya know. You should go over there. "

A little more gentle persuasion and the dork is pulling a half-conscious Dee out the door. Dennis makes to follow them but his attention is suddenly split by a dark-haired beauty in a tight, tight dress. For a few minutes, he gets lost in the woman’s assets, forgetting his plan completely.

"Oh shit!" 

Running out of the bar and to the alley beside, Dennis finds things are a little further along than he had intended.

Dee’s head is lolling back on her neck like a broken doll. Her dress has slipped up around her hips, exposing long, pale thighs. Her assailants hands have disappeared somewhere beneath the sheer black material as she attempts to shove him away feebly.

It’s easy, far too easy, for Dennis to shove the man to the floor and bring a fist down on his face. He relishes in the crunch of bone under his knuckles.

"Get out of here!" The dork starts to protest and Dennis kicks him hard, "I said, GET OUT OF HERE!"

As the injured man scrambles away Dennis looks to his sister and for a moment, just a moment, she looks back at him like a drowning woman would look at the shore, like he's her salvation (and, god, he'll carry that moment with him until he dies). 

"What the fuck are you doing Dennis!?" And just like that, it's gone.

"Oh- oh I'm sorry, just saving you being raped in an alley maybe?"

"I was handling it!"

"Really!? You were handling it?" 

They’re both screaming now. Of course.

"YES!" Her voice reaches a pitch only dogs can hear.

Dennis throws his hands up in exasperation, “Suit yourself, woman!”

"Wait." She says with quiet resignation, stopping Dennis in his tracks "Could you- will you take me home? Please?"

** 26 **

Distantly, very distantly, he remembers a time he could look at her and think “ _my twin_ , _my copy”_. Well, they aren’t children anymore and Dee is nothing but a lesser, quieter, more horrifically embarrassing echo of himself. But, the point is, that she is still part of him. His own.

That’s what he tries to remember when he finds her sprawled out, wasted on his bedroom floor.

  
“Dennis! Dennis! My brother!” Dee gushes, throwing her head back with a grin.

“What are you doing here, Sweet Dee?”

“He told me- he told me that you showed him my ‘criminal record’” she hiccups and gags at the same time and Dennis takes a step back, “He said he couldn’t be with someone who tried to burn their roommate in their sleep, or whatever.  I don’t know, I don’t even care. I just want to know why you would bother doing something like that, Dennis? Hey?”

Ah, that’s right, the veterinarian. That guy was going places. Smart, resourceful and, for some reason, attracted to Dee. Usually, these things would wear themselves out in a few days, a week tops, but this guy was a hanger-on. Dennis had to stamp it out.

He snorts at her, “Are you crazy Deandra, why would I give a shit about the next guy in the seemingly endless conga line of guys you’ve attached yourself to?”

“That’s what I don’t get. You don’t care, you never have.” Her smile falls away to something pitiful. So soft and un-Dee like.

He knows he should kick her to the curb, call her a bird and a whore and leave her in the cold. But years, decades of cultivating this relationship (and _want_ , unadulterated _want_ ) tell him that this is the time to move in.

He joins her on the floor, pressing against her from shoulder to elbow.

“He doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.” He says with lukewarm sincerity.  

Eyes glassy and perspiration beading along her brow and upper lip, Dee looks like shit. And she knows it.

“Don’t be an ass, ass.” She bites.

“You’re not making this easy for me.”

“Why did you do it, Dennis?”

"Oh Dee, don't you get it yet?" Dennis asks, taking her chin in his hand and tilting her face up to his, "I love you."

That was probably true, once. Love, obsession, control. They’re all one in the same to Dennis Reynolds these days.

She’s scowling furiously at his words so he does the only thing he knows and leans in to slant his mouth over hers. A memory of a kiss touches the corners of both of their minds. That had been hard and unyielding where this was soft and inviting. But the intent had been the same ( _possession)_.

And yet, almost immediately, she bows into his touch. Her submission, her reliance, will never fail to thrill him.

Her eyes flutter closed as she gives in to the kiss. But Dennis doesn’t close his own.

Not once.

** 8* **

It started long before Paddy's, before The Gang, before Dennis was the King and Dee was the Aluminium Monster, even before the Reynolds twins had been truly soured by their parents' neglect. It started in a memory that Dennis has always misremembered.

Here's how it happened:

Dennis watches Dee watch that rodent Freddy Martinez from across the playground. Earlier that day, he had heard Freddy telling his dirty little friends that Dee Reynolds was _disgusting_ , that his dad said the Reynold's were trash and their children would be just as bad. She's going to ask him to be her _boyfriend_. He'll break Dee's heart in front of the whole school.

So Dennis riles Freddy up and breaks his awful face to with a rock before he can hurt _his_ sister and Dee runs off, weeping. She doesn't get it, she never does. 

Around the corner, Dee sits against a wall, curled up into herself, knees tucked into her chest. Dennis sinks to the floor beside her, his arm pressed snug against hers from shoulder to elbow. 

He doesn't apologise, and he never will. But he does reach out and lace her fingers through his own. 

"Why did you do that?" She asks, eventually.

"He's a dick. He was going to-“

“You’re a dick.”

"I know. But I love you, Dee." Dennis says quietly, honestly "Don't you get that? You don't need him, or anyone. You just need me."

 

**Author's Note:**

> In the same way The Gang's worst characteristics have grown even worse with time, I like to think that Dennis did (or does) love Dee but it has become warped to something much uglier as he becomes this weird, psychotic caricature of himself. 
> 
> The manipulation here is perhaps less blatant than we can normally give Dennis credit for, but let's roll with it.


End file.
